Could you recommend some better online resources for learning git?
Of these, my particular favorite is Michael Schwern’s “Git for ages 4 and up." Watch this, and suddenly Git will make a ton of sense. Jessica Kerr's talk about Git is a close second; it's remarkable for telling us about how Git thinks about things without showing any code.
One of my favorite tools to use in my Git course is this site:
http://www.wei-wang.com/ExplainGitWithD3/
which graphically shows what happens when you commit vs. change branches vs. rebase. Super cool stuff.
If you go through the two of these, and if you understand them, I think that you'll have about 90% of what you need to then re-read a Git introduction, and have things make sense.
Tinker toys really do make great graph visuals!
Here's the youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ffBJ4sVUb4
The best solution to this problem, I've found, is for people to learn how Git works. Once that happens, everything else falls into place, and their lives are much easier.
So is it ridiculous that you can only understand the Git documentation and tutorials after you understand the data structures? Yes. But Git isn't going away, and if we want people to succeed with it, then we need to help them to learn it, rather than castigate them for using a tool that they need to use for their work.
- The Git Book [1]
[0] http://tom.preston-werner.com/2009/05/19/the-git-parable.htm...
Alternatively, you could attend Recurse Center and sit through one of Mary's excellent git workshops. :)